Lantern
by Ollie Queen
Summary: An object crashes to earth in smallville leaving behind only a strange ring.


Lantern

The shape grew steadily larger as it spun through the atmosphere, glowing red with the heat of re-entry. Out of control it spun down towards earth. Smoke billowing, spinning erratically it bore down through the clouds, heading towards the sleepy town of Smallville.

Lt. Jordan stopped his cruiser on the highway, and stepped out of the car. He looked upwards and stared in amazement at the ball of fire that arched down towards his car. Lt. Jordan ran for cover as the object crashed into his car obliterating it in a huge explosion. Jordan was thrown through the air and headlong into a tree, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

Clark arrived in time to catch Lt. Jordan as he slid to the ground, laying him on the ground he turned to survey the scene, a large crater now stood in the middle of what had once been the road, surrounded by debris that may or may not have at one time been part of Lt. Jordan's car. His eyes caught upon a small silver ring with a small green stone set in the centre of a looped design. Believing it to belong to Jordan, he slipped it into the police officers pocket and picked him up.

Arriving at the hospital over a mile away in less than a minute, with the police officer in his arms Clark placed him onto the ground before shouting for a doctor and rushing away. If he appeared at the hospital holding an accident victim in his arms too many times people would start to ask questions.

Lt. Hal Jordan, his father had been a policeman, and his father before him. In fact the family job went far enough back that Hal suspected one of his ancestors had hit a fellow Neanderthal over the head with a rock whilst brandishing a wooden shield. He'd been unconscious for almost a week apparently after the accident, and about all he could remember was a ball of fire and the face of someone looking down at him whilst they were travelling fast, and he meant really fast, not even super car fast would feel like that.

Probably hallucinations brought about by the concussion the doctors had told him, still he'd like to go back to where the accident happened to see what was to be seen, and also maybe to cruise around town to see if he could jog his memory over that face, whoever it had been had been breaking the speed limit to get him to a hospital. He slipped his hand into his pocket to grab his phone, maybe call for a taxi. Instead his hand found a metal object, pulling it out he held it up to the light. It appeared to be a small silver ring, set with a small green stone, way too green to be an emerald even.

"Nice, Wonder who this belongs too?" Said Hal as he turned the ring over in the light "I'll hand it in to lost and found when I get back to the station, see if anyone has put in a claim."

Placing the ring back into his pocket, he reached into the opposite pocket and pulled out his phone, as he began to dial the number for the local taxi service he noticed that he was wearing the ring.

Chloe was on her way home, cutting through a back alley in Smallville, which was still safer than doing the same thing in metropolis even with the strange things she loved to tell anyone who would listen about. Up ahead a man stepped out of the shadows of the alley, and judging from his choice of headwear he had more than getting home on his mind. She heard a noise and turned around, where another balaclava equipped man was standing.

"We'll have that purse, darlin and anything else you might have that's valuable" said one of the thugs.

"Oh yeah? Then why don't you brave boys come and get it?" replied Chloe, her words sounding tougher than she felt.

Both men moved in unison, the one in front of her grabbing her purse just as the one behind her pinned her arms to her side, Chloe got away one good scream before a hand clasped over her mouth from behind.

"Leave her alone!" Clark shouted from the mouth of the alley.

The two men scattered, one running down the alley away from Clark and the other pulling out a flick knife, and preferring to take his chances with the average looking guy that stood between him and freedom. The knife hit Clark square in the chest, where it immediately shattered, the shards of metal flying into the air. The punch caught the would be thief square in the solar plexus and sent him crashing into a dumpster, the lid of which promptly slammed shut.

The second thief having made a clean getaway ran straight into an off duty Lt. Jordan. It didn't take an off duty police officer to spot that something fishy was going on, in front of Hal stood a man wearing a black balaclava, holding a woman's handbag. The thief sucker punched Hal in the gut before turning and running down the main street intending to make good his getaway.

The thief was well out of Hal's range but he threw out his hand to attempt to grab the thief, the ring on his hand was glowing green, in his mind Hal saw chains snaking out from the ring and wrapping around the thief. This was also the last thing Hal saw as he slipped once more into unconsciousness.

Clark emerged from the alley with a visibly shaken Chloe.

"I can't believe I let him get away" said Clark.

"Don't worry Clark, not even the Boy Scout can catch everyone" replied Chloe

"But your money—"Began Clark.

"Didn't get very far, Look" said Chloe pointing at her purse on the sidewalk.

On the sidewalk in front of them, was Chloe's purse and nearby lay an unconscious Lt. Jordan. However by far the most interesting thing on the sidewalk was the man lying on the pavement wearing a balaclava wrapped from his feet to his shoulders in glowing green chains…..


End file.
